New Services For Sexual Assault Victims Through Partnership With Ballad Health

March 12, 2020

Branch House Sullivan County Family Justice Center is currently expanding services for domestic violence and sexual assault victims through a partnership with Ballad Health. Dawn Smith, a registered nurse with Ballad Health, is our new Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) and can perform on site forensic examinations. Dawn is a graduate of East Tennessee State University School of Nursing with a bachelor’s degree and has practiced emergency medicine for four years along with being a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner for three years. As part of forensic services, the exam can include evidence collection, documentation of injuries, victim-centered interviews, and photographs among other related tasks. Branch House is excited to offer these services to the public for several reasons. These sensitive exams are conducted in a private, confidential, non-threatening, victim and family-centered place where victims can feel comfortable and safe instead of waiting in crowded waiting rooms, especially in light of the current concerns with COVID-19 and other related illnesses.

The Sullivan County Family Justice Center is a non-profit organization that opened its doors in May 2018 and has since served over 500 clients of domestic violence and sexual assault. The family justice center approach is a community-wide collaboration in a centralized location that serves domestic violence victims and their families along with sexual assault victims. One important ingredient for family justice centers is to provide one place where a multi-disciplinary team of professionals provide coordinated services to victims of family violence to champion their care, safety, and well-being. Instead of victims driving from place to place and repeating their stories over and over again, the family justice center model combines all available resources in Sullivan County so partner agencies can serve in a collaborative and centralized system with accountability and responsibility to victims and survivors. The United States Department of Justice has identified the family justice center model as a best practice for intervention and prevention for domestic violence and victims; thus, one of Branch House’s first goals was to see a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner on site. We are excited to reach this milestone and announce Dawn Smith as Branch House’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner.